The 2010 harvest has been late but so far looks sensational. The later ripening has also had the added advantage of lower light angles and lots of great photograph opportunities. Enjoy a sampling of photos from Tablas Creek, taken between October 25th and November 5th, 2010

The end of September is a great time to walk the vineyard. Most varieties are ripe or nearly so, but most of the fruit is still on the vines. And you get a great chance to see where everything is. We're harvesting our last Grenache Blanc and Syrah this week, and our first Grenache Noir and Roussanne.
Mourvedre, Counoise, and Picpoul are still a few weeks off. But the vineyard looks great, and we're excited with 2009.

We had a break in the weather early this week, with morning fog and daytime highs in the mid-70s. The vineyard is poised for veraison, and I spent a few hours prowling around taking pictures mostly in our Grenache, Mourvedre and Vermentino blocks.

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A frosty winter morning (and more good weather ahead!)

We're finally in a great winter weather pattern. We've seen measurable rain each of the last four days (totaling about 2.5 inches) and a couple of very cold nights in the mid-20s. It's a terrific time of year for this, as the cold weather forces the vines into dormancy early and the rainfall starts the critical process of replenishing the ground water depleted by the severe drought two winters ago.

What's better, we're forecast for more rain over the next week, with the long-term forecast using phrases like "a more significant storm Monday", "yet another storm system Christmas Eve" and "trough lingers near west coast".

A few photos give you a sense of what the morning was like. It was still below freezing when I got out here shortly after 9a.m., and the frost was lingering anywhere the sun hadn't yet penetrated. An end-post in the Syrah section below the winery shows the lingering frost:

The next two shots look at our wetlands wastewater treatement area which we installed back in 2006. The water plants are largely dormant at this time of year anyway, but the gravel-lined pools were cracking audibly in the sun as the ice covering them started to melt.

And finally one more shot looking east into the Syrah block with the half-melted dew lighting up the newly sprouted vineyard cover crop:

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A frosty winter morning (and more good weather ahead!)

We're finally in a great winter weather pattern. We've seen measurable rain each of the last four days (totaling about 2.5 inches) and a couple of very cold nights in the mid-20s. It's a terrific time of year for this, as the cold weather forces the vines into dormancy early and the rainfall starts the critical process of replenishing the ground water depleted by the severe drought two winters ago.

What's better, we're forecast for more rain over the next week, with the long-term forecast using phrases like "a more significant storm Monday", "yet another storm system Christmas Eve" and "trough lingers near west coast".

A few photos give you a sense of what the morning was like. It was still below freezing when I got out here shortly after 9a.m., and the frost was lingering anywhere the sun hadn't yet penetrated. An end-post in the Syrah section below the winery shows the lingering frost:

The next two shots look at our wetlands wastewater treatement area which we installed back in 2006. The water plants are largely dormant at this time of year anyway, but the gravel-lined pools were cracking audibly in the sun as the ice covering them started to melt.

And finally one more shot looking east into the Syrah block with the half-melted dew lighting up the newly sprouted vineyard cover crop: